Authentic Marketing Instead Of Spam – Creating Great Marketing

No one can be online for any length of time without experiencing spam. It comes into our email boxes, gives us eyestrain with flashing banners or may come in the form of general tackiness on Facebook. With all of this online spam, it can be difficult to see what’s genuine online.

The internet has revolutionized our lives. If we have a message to get out, it is now possible for an the average person to do so in a bigger way than ever before. One of the problems with this is that it only takes a few missteps for someone new to marketing to miss the mark and end up cranking out spam. One problem with all of this spam is that it makes it easier for the general public to see all online marketing as spam.

That’s the reason for this article. I wanted to take a good look at spam and use knowledge of what makes it spam to help marketers make their already good marketing better.

This is the definition that I use for spam:

A piece of content that has an agenda and provides no value or benefit to the reader.

Content of this variety lacks depth. The only way it will impact the reader is if they take the action that the marketer wants them to take. The content itself lacks content of any depth.

What makes authentic marketing?

It must provide genuine value with no strings attached. This means that the piece of content should solve a problem, impart knowledge or be entertaining. There are a lot of people who are building their businesses through blogging and social media. The content they share is free and if it is great, it will get shared which drives more traffic back to their site. This sharing feature is one of the coolest things about Social Media. Content worthy of being read is allowed to be read more through sharing. This is actually the way that all great content is spread. How often do you recommend great books, movies or music to friends?

I feel that the reason why people who produce low quality content resort to spamming everyone with it is that they are the only ones who will. No one else would ever want to spread it.

Because of this, spamming is just a way for those who create low quality content co try and imitate great content.

Here’s how I look at great marketing. It’s all about depth and span. The more depth or better the piece of content, the more potential it has to be spread by those who are impacted by it. If there is no depth, however, the person responsible for producing it must broadcast it in any way they know how.

Depth alone isn’t the answer, at least not the complete answer. It’s crucial to study marketing and seek out ways to spread your message ethically as well as sharing content that deserves being passed around by others. I am a big fan of Seth Godin. He says that marketing is nothing more than the spreading of ideas. If you have something that you want to say and have it spread, then you are a marketer! He stressed that a lot of great ideas have never taken off due to bad marketing.

What should we keep in mind to make sure that our content is seed by a large enough audience as well as shared?

It comes down to span and depth. Content that’s great gives the reader something and has quality. This will encourage others to share which leads naturally to span.

“The greatest depth over the greatest span.”

Focusing on this will help you to balance three areas of content marketing.

1. Make high quality content that has depth

2. Get it in front of a large audience

3. Make it very easy for them to share it with others – via social media syndication buttons/ plugins

Balance is important in many different areas of life. In marketing online, it’s important to balance depth and span to have great results.